Reese’s Cup Oatmeal [21 Day Fix]

Holy chocolate cravings, this has been an intense week. Usually I don’t crave chocolate suuuuper bad. My husband would laugh out loud at that statement. Let me amend…I don’t crave chocolate every day, but when I do it gets IINNN-tense. Read: THIS WEEK. Man oh man. There is this superfood shake you drink in the morning throughout the 21 Day Fix, and I drink the chocolate version. This shake has, for the most part, totally kicked any chocolate craving (or any cravings for that matter), but this week my body has basically forgotten that I drank it by about six pm.

Anyway, that is why this recipe has come into existence. I really wanted needed chocolate and was determined to find a way to indulge healthily. Let’s not talk about the five mini snickers I just ate at my desk twenty minutes ago. Let’s just pretend I made this oatmeal several days ago and have only indulged in that. Okay? Okay, cool.

This oatmeal is extra special because it is not only chocolatey and delicious, it also has almond butter ? (which tastes like peanut butter once it’s all stirred in). So what you end up with is a delicious bowl of soft, comforting oatmeal that tastes like a melted Reese’s Cup.

So…yeah. What else is there to say? Must I give any other explanation of this oatmeal’s deliciousness apart from the fact that it tastes like Reese’s Cups? I didn’t think so…I didn’t think so.

I’ve not met many people who don’t love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. If you are one that does dislike this combination, I apologize. You can pop over and read my other 21 Day Fix recipes instead ?.

There are a few extra elements here that make this oatmeal super, extra, awesomely delicious.

You cook the oatmeal in almond milk rather than just water. This makes it a little creamier and ???.

You add honey. Since we aren’t throwing a block of processed, sugar packed milk chocolate in here, you need to add something to sweeten up that cocoa powder. Honey, honey, honey. Mmm. Does the trick quite nicely.

A pinch of salt! Just a pinch. Brings out the flavor of the almond butter and chocolate. Side note…the first time I made this, I thought I had the lid of my salt container on the little “sprinkler” setting, but I had it turned to where it’s totally open so you can scoop the salt out. The result? A tablespoon of salt went into my small bowl of oatmeal. Cooooolll. I scooped most of it out and ate it anyway, but it was pretttttttty salty – not gunna lie.

Throw some almond butter and cocoa powder in on top of these little tricks, and you’ve got yourself a bowl of healthy decadence.

Healthy decadence….that should be its own cookbook. Don’t you think?? I think.

For the last few days, I have been in hardcore plan mode for Seth and I’s two year anniversary + home from deployment trip in July. Initially we were thinking we would go to a Sandals resort like we did for our honeymoon. All inclusive, gorgeous hotel, super fancy room, most relaxing week ever.

So I was looking more deeply into all of this throughout the last few days and ironing out some details, and it is looking like we would end up wayyyyy over budget if we went the Sandals route – at least for the locations that looked really awesome with a fancy shmancy room. So I started looking into some other options, still keeping Sandals on our radar.

Then I looked into heading to Orlando for a week, staying in a really fancy hotel/resort, and hitting a bunch of the theme parks. This definitely is the cheeaappperr (by a lot) option, and it would give us a hefty chunk of money left over each day to spend on fun restaurants and other fun things around Orlando.

So now we basically have two main options: go to a Sandals resort, but make it one of the cheaper, closer ones and stay in one of their basic rooms, ooorrrr head to Orlando for a week and hit most of the theme parks and have an extra chunk of money left over each day for extra Orlando festivities.

Because I am suuuuuper lazy, I like to make this in the slow cooker with Steel Cut oats. Same concept, just spray a small crock with cooking spray. Dump in one cup of the steel cut oats, two cups almond milk, two cups water, two tablespoons agave syrup/maple syrup/honey (pick your poison!), three tablespoons cocoa powder, and a pinch of salt. Mix together and turn on when you go to bed. In the AM, you have four to five days worth of breakfast. When I go to eat it, I mix in PB2 or a little of the real thing.

Annie
Just ran across this blog, so I haven’t really checked everything out yet. This recipe looks right up my alley, “chocolate” Can’t wait to try it! I was also hoping you might have some advice for a brand new blogger. Well it is still in the thinking stage. I am hoping to start something in January. Super excited, but I am nervous about not having enough content!! Nice job!

Hey Tara! I’m so glad you ran across my blog. This recipe is super tasty if you ever get the chance to try it :). I’m so excited for your new blog! My advice for you at this stage would be to not hesitate and take the leap. I know it’s scary and kind of a big commitment, and I remember feeling the EXACT same way about the content, but you will be blown away by the amount of ideas you’ll come up with once you start. Is it going to be a food blog? One thing I did before I started (since I was worried about content) is just sat down one day and started writing down post/recipe ideas in a note on my phone. Once I got started, the ideas just kept flowing and flowing – it was crazy! I would start there and see what you think up. If you have any other questions or concerns at all, email me and we can chat about it: chessonab@gmail.com :)!

Almond milk is a yellow container, but I read that you don’t really need to count it if you are using unsweetened as long as it’s between 4-6 oz or less (and this is 6 oz per serving). If you want to be safe and count it, you could probably bump the yellow here up to 2 instead of 1 1/2!